embarrassment

Here's another incident that has stuck in my mind for 40 years.

In 1968/69 I was a junior at La Jolla High. It was the second of the 3 high schools I attended that year (we were moving every few months at that point - another long story).
There was a very popular girl in one of my classes whose name I have thankfully forgotten. Now, I rarely use the B-word to describe women, but this girl was such a snotty little stuck-up thing that I really can't think of another word to describe her. (It should come as no surprise that there were a lot of them at La Jolla High. I think she was their queen.) Regardless, I really was not attracted to her - at all.

So - during the late 60s girls were required to wear dresses or skirts to school and the preferred style was 'as short as you can get away with'. (You can probably guess where this is going .)
One day the teacher split us into small groups and had us arrange our desks in circles to discuss something or another and left the room to do whatever it is teachers do when they leave during class (drink? smoke? toke? crap? Who knows...). Anyway, B-girl ended up directly across from me and (to put it delicately) she had forgotten the basics of being ladylike when sitting down in a short skirt.

The ensuing discussion was interminably boring and (as anyone who knows me can attest) when I'm bored (which is most of the time) I 'drift off' mentally while staring at whatever happens to catch my attention. And, quite frankly, the flower pattern on B-girl's undies was by far the most interesting thing in my field of vision at that particular moment.

It literally took a couple of minutes, but when it finally dawned upon her what I was staring at she went 'non-linear'. She started screaming about what a nasty pervert I was which, of course, drew the attention of the entire class. I was really wishing I was anywhere else. (An 'invisibility cloak' would have been nice.)

Now, the 'scenery' had been undeniably pleasant (and teenage boys are by definition nasty perverts so I'm not disputing that point), but I honestly wasn't thinking what she thought I was thinking. I tried to tell her that, but she was incapable of thinking that I wasn't thinking what she thought I was thinking. (Translation: She was sure she was hot and I wanted her.) At any rate I did apologize profusely - I've never intentionally upset anyone (regardless of how I feel about them).

What still puzzles me is why it was me who ended up being publicly embarrassed instead of Little Miss "It's your fault I can't keep my legs together" -- Go figure :-)